Bharti Said to Have Been Ordered to Stop 3G Services in 7 Areas

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest
wireless company, has been asked by the government to stop
third-generation phone services in seven regions by March 18 for
violating its license agreement, two people with direct
knowledge of the matter said.

The company has also been ordered to pay 3.5 billion rupees
($64.7 million) for allowing its customers to connect to a
rivals network in areas including eastern part of Uttar Pradesh
state, said one of the people who didn’t want to be identified
before an official announcement. Bharti will appeal the order
today in the High Court in New Delhi to seek a stay on the
cancellation, the person said.

Bharti, Vodafone Group Plc. and Idea Cellular Ltd. entered
into agreements after the 3G auction in 2010 that enabled the
mobile-phone service providers to offer data services across the
world’s seventh-largest landmass instead of operating only in
the regions for which they won licenses. Bharti paid 1.6 billion
rupees for the right to operate services in Mumbai and Delhi
each. That compares with the reserve price of 35 billion rupees
for an all-India permit.

The government is acting on the arrangements because it
violates the terms of the contract and will likely send notices
to Vodafone and Idea as well, one of the people said.

Department of Telecommunications spokeswoman Mamta Verma
could not immediately provide details on the notice. Raza Khan,
a spokesman for Bharti, declined to comment on the matter.

Rajat Mukherji, a spokesman for Idea, said the company had
not received an order from the government regarding cancellation
of services. Suresh Rangarajan, a spokesman for Vodafone, did
not answer two calls made to his mobile phone.